Lift the Embargo, Yankee Imperialists!

For nearly 63 years, the Republic of Cuba has endured a horrible embargo from the capitalist-imperialist United States of America. This embargo was put in place in response to Cuba’s nationalization of American oil refineries and other progressive reforms. From the start of their genocidal campaign to weaken, demoralize, and destroy the Cuban republic, the American imperialists made their intentions absolutely clear: they worked to make Cuban life so hard and brutal that the Cuban people would blame their government for their problems. We do not need to cite any “communist propaganda” from Cuba to see this, for the bloodsuckers state it in their own documents, such as in the “Program Review by the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose (Lansdale)”:

Basically, the operation is to bring about the revolt of the Cuban people. The revolt will overthrow the Communist regime and institute a new government with which the United States can live in peace.

The revolt requires a strongly motivated political action movement established within Cuba, to generate the revolt, to give it direction towards the object, and to capitalize on the climactic moment. The political actions will be assisted by economic warfare to induce failure of the Communist regime to supply Cubaʼs economic needs, psychological operations to turn the peoplesʼ resentment increasingly against the regime, and military-type groups to give the popular movement an action arm for sabotage and armed resistance in support of political objectives.

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The “Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)” makes the American imperialist stance even clearer:

Salient considerations respecting the life of the present Government of Cuba are:

1. The majority of Cubans support Castro (the lowest estimate I have seen is 50 percent).

2. There is no effective political opposition.

3. Fidel Castro and other members of the Cuban Government espouse or condone communist influence.

4. Communist influence is pervading the Government and the body politic at an amazingly fast rate.

5. Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause.

6. The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.

If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

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Why is Cuba’s demise so important to American capitalist-imperialists? There are numerous reasons, but they all fall under one overall desire: they want Cuba as a semi-colony for the American bourgeoisie to exploit. Spanish colonialists once controlled Cuba, but America occupied Cuba in the early 20th century; both imperialists made Cuba grow sugar and make rum for profit (and they weakened any agriculture that would, you know, feed the Cuban people), and they dumped their surplus capital in the island to exploit its cheap labor-power. While America nominally gave it independence in 1902, the country remained a semi-colony of American capital. That is why the island’s comprador bourgeoisie and landlords remained extremely rich, and it’s why American capitalists—including the infamous Mafia—made casinos, luxury hotels, and other unproductive enterprises to launder money and get even richer than they already were. To protect these relations of production and this sort of society, the old regime became highly repressive under Fulgencio Batista; he banned strikes, censored speech, and gave benefits to landlords at the expense of peasants. All of this made the conditions ripe for revolution in the country, and so Fidel Castro and his July 26th movement started their guerrilla operations in the Siena Maestra mountains.

The group’s war relied on small bands of guerrilla soldiers, not a people’s army based on the masses’ support. Hell, the movement was not even communist, even though communists were involved in fighting the state; as Castro said, “… we are not communists… The gates are open for private investment that contributes to the development of Cuba” [Source]. Still, the progressive and revolutionary classes of Cuba supported Castro and his group, and the peasantry in particular took up arm against their landlord oppressors. Because the military dictatorship of Batista was extremely unpopular among the working people, and because even the American imperialists doubted its capability to survive, the regime fell on January 1st, 1959. The new government began reforms to try and help the people. “Cuba: the Evaporation of a Myth” writes this:

Despite Castro’s proclaimed desire to get along with the U.S. government and the U.S. imperialists’ desire to get Castro to support their interests, nothing could change in Cuba without seizing the sugar estates and mills and ending the monopoly American business held there. These were the pillars of the economic and political system that had given rise to the rebellion. To challenge them meant challenging the whole colonial system and its master, but to retreat in the face of them was not possible without abandoning everything.

Fidel Castro: Secret “Marxist-Leninist”

When Castro proclaimed the first agrarian reform law which limited the size of the biggest estates (many of them owned by U.S. sugar companies), all hell broke loose. The U.S. began applying economic and political pressure to topple the rebel army which in effect now was the government—and in turn the Cubans began to take over the property of those forces whose interests were opposed to the island’s independence. By 1961, the government found itself in possession of key sections of the economy, while the U.S. had imposed an economic blockade. In April, the U.S. launched the futile Bay of Pigs invasion. …

The great majority of Cuban workers and peasants were strong supporters of the revolution, and very much in favor of the measures it had taken, such as taking over the estates and mills and guaranteeing small peasants tire right to their land (and in many cases giving them more), reducing rent, electricity and other prices, putting thousands of unemployed workers to work constructing hospitals, roads, schools, etc., launching a tremendous literacy campaign, and other steps which removed some of the weight from the masses’ backs and allowed their enthusiasm for change to show itself in action. And many were enthusiastic about the idea of going on to socialism.

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Thus, the American embargo on Cuba has never been to “free the people”. The people supported the reforms of their new government, which was and is much more democratic than Batista’s regime. It was obviously not for improving the people’s living standards, for they were directed against Castro’s reforms, which really did improve the masses’ quality of life. It was and is purely used to try and retake Cuba, put it under America’s sphere of influence once again, and exploit the island’s natural resources and labor. It seeks to strangle the economy, make life as difficult and tragic as possible; its goal is the destruction of Cuban society as it exists and the return of the old regime as it existed under Batista.

The imperialists deny the severity of their embargo—which really amounts to a blockade—by saying that “America still allows selling food and medical supplies,” or whatever. The American Association for World Health refuted this in their report: “Denial of Food and Medicine: The Impact of the US Embargo on Health and Nutrition in Cuba”. In Chapter Three, they show that Cuba is deprived of many medical supplies thanks to the criminal restriction:

As noted in previous chapters, the U.S. government has levied a series of restrictions on medical exports to Cuba. These apply to all products from U.S. pharmaceutical and medical supply houses, subsidiaries of these firms in third countries, and third-country firms with a substantial percentage of U.S. ownership. They also apply to the goods themselves, regardless of nationality or ownership of the manufacturer, when U.S.-origin components, U.S. patents or technology are implicated in the manufacturing process. And finally, these suppliers are subject to U.S. government requirements to certify specific end-use of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment in Cuba, requiring detailed distribution information and the possibility of on-site verification of the information provided.

The regulations governing export of medications and medical supplies to Cuba have changed a number of times since the full U.S. embargo was imposed in 1962. Although we make a general chronological review of U.S. embargo legislation in an earlier chapter, it is useful to look at modifications which have specific relevance to sales for medical purposes.

Until l964, medicines were exempted from the embargo altogether, and their export to Cuba was permitted. However, on May 14, 1964, the Commerce Department revoked the general license for foods and medicines and indicated that henceforth policy would be to deny such sales, and permit only limited humanitarian donations. From l964 until October 1975, no sales to Cuba of medications, medical equipment or supplies containing any U.S. components or technology were permitted, including those by companies in third countries. …

Finally, on October 28, 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) was signed into law, reversing the 1975 decision to allow third-country companies owned or controlled by U.S. firms to engage in licensed trade with Cuba. An exception allowed special licenses to be granted for the sale of medicines or medical equipment by these firms or their parent companies in the USA provided that a number of prerequisites were met to the satisfaction of the U.S. government.” These include: that there is no reasonable likelihood that the item exported will be used for the purposes of torture or human rights abuses, that it will be reexported, or that it could be used in the production of any biotechnology product. The law also provides that medical exports can only be authorized if the President determines that the U.S. government is able to verify, by on-site inspection and other appropriate means, that the exported item is to be used for the purposes for which it was intended and only for the use and benefit of the Cuban people.

In addition, the CDA prohibits foreign ships which have docked in Cuba from entering U.S. ports for the next 180 days, partially reinstating the blacklist. …

Despite the fact that sales to Cuba of medicines and medical equipment may be authorized by the U.S. government, we find that major medical manufacturers in the USA do not in fact export their products to Cuba. Indeed, they report various “chill factors” that keep them from taking advantage of this possibility. Among these are the labyrinth of changing U.S. regulations and their interpretation, licensing requirements and the complex application process, time lags, the uncertainty of final authorization, often based on active discouragement by government offices, and stiffened penalties for embargo violations. We also observed considerable confusion among United States manufacturers in the medical supply field about current U.S. legislation, and a unanimous reluctance to engage Cuban import firms in conversation, much less contracts.

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In Chapter Five, they reveal that the embargo affects food supplies as well:

The Cuban population’s nutrition and food security have been adversely affected by the U.S. embargo, especially in this decade, when the island has been doubly impacted: first, by the collapse in traditional trade relations with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and second, by the tightening of the U.S. trade ban through the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) of 1992.

The embargo’s effects have- been -particularly negative in four areas:

1. Its contribution to the general contraction of the economy, and reduced import capabilities for food, fuel and other commodities key to guaranteeing basic foodstuffs and maintaining nutritional levels. In addition, when the CDA was enacted, its provisions blocking Cuban exports to U.S. subsidiaries cut funds available to Cuba to import prioritized food items-a substantial amount, considering that from 1989 to 1992, Cuba received a total of $781 million from exports to these companies.

2. Higher shipping rates and shipping delays resulting from the CDA’s prohibition on entrance to U.S. ports by vessels which have docked in Cuba during the previous 180 days. Economists estimate that if goods could be sent to Cuba from the USA, a savings of $215,800 could be rung up for each ship replacing a European freighter, and $516,706 for each replacing an Asian freighter, adding up to millions annually.2 Furthermore, as noted in the chapter on the general economic crisis, shipping associations worldwide have notified their members of the risks involved in taking a vessel into Cuba; and several companies have decided not to enter Cuban ports altogether.

3. The sudden cutoff of competitively priced U.S. subsidiary commodities to Cuba, when the CDA became law in October, 1992. This compounded the effect of the three-decade prohibition on direct imports from the United States, Cuba’s nearest market.

4. Obstacles created for biotechnology research and production as applied to agriculture, by virtue of the CDA clause specially targeting this industry for embargo enforcement. …

After the CDA was enacted, documentation indicates that Cuban importers were not able to obtain prices as competitive as those offered by U.S. subsidiaries, and that the CDA shipping restrictions resulted in increased freight costs. According to figures from Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Trade, as early as 1992, when Cuban importers began switching suppliers, higher prices from these new sources resulted in an additional cost of $41.5 million for cereals, chicken and milk alone. By 1995, average shipping rates for cereals had doubled from their 1991 levels; and shipping rates in general were reported at 15 to 30% higher than the World Scale (the average freight charges along worldwide shipping routes between specified geographic zones).’

The premium paid on foodstuffs due to the embargo is much higher, if one compares actual prices and freight costs contracted by Cuban importers with price quotations from U.S. companies and average freight costs from the mainland USA For example, wheat is currently purchased from the European agro-industry ‘-at a price of $25-28 per ton, freight included, but the same quality grain would be available from U.S. suppliers for half that: $13 per ton (shipping included from a Gulf port). Understood in this light, for 1993, Cuba paid an additional $34 million for food, and in 1994, an additional $36 million, due exclusively to the U.S. embargo.

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In the face of the embargo, Cuba was able to improve literacy, education, healthcare access, and more. The country’s life expectancy is higher than the US’s, and that says a lot when the US is the richest and most powerful capitalist-imperialist country while Cuba was and is a victim of imperialist exploitation and subjugation. Its democratic government is the closest system we have to proletarian democracy; that is why Cuban representatives are instantly recallable, and it is why the masses are far more involved in government than they are in other countries’ governments. Thus, Cuba deserves a lot of praise.

Liberals, especially liberal school and college students, believe that Cuba’s small size makes it “easy” to improve life expectancy, quality of life, etc. If this was true, then the old regime that existed before Castro’s rebellion would have improved the people’s conditions, yet that government—which never had to deal with any embargo, sanctions, military threats, etc.—failed to do what today’s government is doing. Also, just as Cuba’s population is small, its economy is small, so its resources are not plenty; the embargo sure as hell does not make it easier for them to do what they do, yet they have been able to greatly improve people’s standards by educating them, giving them decent employment, providing social services like healthcare and housing, and much more.

Nonetheless, we must also criticize the government of Fidel Castro and his successors. As Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, we see that the rebels did not have a proletarian leadership; their movement was petty-bourgeois:

By the 1950s the petty bourgeoisie had become the most volatile class in Cuba. The political groups that arose from it were the best organized to fight for their interests. Castro’s 26th of July Movement came from the urban petty bourgeoisie, 25% of Cuba’s population—the tens of thousands of businessmen with no business, salesmen with no sales, teachers with no one to teach, lawyers and doctors with few patients and clients, architects and engineers for whom there was little work, and so on. In its 1956 “Program Manifesto,” it defined itself as “guided by the ideals of democracy, nationalism and social justice . . . [of] Jeffersonian democracy,” and declared, “democracy cannot be the govemment of a race, class or religion, it must be a government of all the people.”

This certainly expressed the outlook of the petty bourgeoisie, with its hatred for the big bourgeoisie that held it down, its repugnance for the revolution of the working class, and its dreams of a “democracy” above classes. Its practical program aimed at restricting the U.S. and the Iandlords by ending the quota system under which the U.S. controlled Cuban sugar cane production, restricting the domination of the biggest landlords over the medium-sized growers, distributing unused and stolen farmland to the small peasants, and a profit-sharing scheme for urban workers to expand the market for domestic manufactures and new investment.

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Because the proletariat did not lead the rebellion, the leaders really sought to build capitalism, not socialism. When the American imperialists imposed their embargo, the Cuban leaders responded by going to the Soviet camp—which had turned revisionist in 1956, causing capitalist restoration and the rise of social-imperialism—becoming its semi-colony.

Castro said that the main problem facing the revolution was how “to produce the abundance necessary for communism”—meaning, to him, trading sugar for the means of production and machinery that he felt the worldrig class could never produce by relying on its own efforts. And to do this the Cuban leaders’ plan amounted to putting the substance of the old relations of production, in somewhat altered form—society’s division of labor and its sugar plantations—to work at top speed to produce the goods to sell to get this wealthier. Now the buyer and “provider” was no longer to be the US, but the Soviet Union.

Once this line was adopted, the enthusiasm of the masses for changing the old society was increasingly perverted so that the role of the working class, rather than revolutionizing society, was reduced to working hard to produce the necessary cash. Thus the basic capitalist relation of production was preserved and strengthened the subordination of the working class to production for profit. Rather than a new socialist society, and still less communism, this was, in essence, the same old society with new masters. The workers’ role was to work hard. The Cuban leaders more and more became bureaucratic state capitalists dependent on a foreign imperialist power.

Even the revolutionary fervor and desire of the Cuban people to support anti-imperialist struggles, exemplified by their support for the people of Vietnam, was twisted to support Soviet adventures abroad against their US rivals, as in Bangladesh and in Angola.

Once the basic political road was taken of buying “socialism” instead of relying on and mobilizing the class struggle of the working class and masses which alone could revolutionize society, the basic economic policy of the Cuban revisionists followed as surely as night follows day. The cash that Castro sought could only be obtained by preserving and strengthening the very lopsided and semicolonial economy that had led to the Cuban revolution in the first place. The production of sugar for sale to the Soviet Union became the basis of economic policy, which all the get-rich-quick schemes, “socialist” proclamations and gimmicks depended on and served. And this economic dependency, in tum, became the basis for the further development of the political line of the Cuban leadership. …

… The USSR offered to substantially increase its loans to Cuba and buy up to five million tons a year of Cuban sugar—more than the country was then producing—at higher than the world market price at that time, so that Cuba could buy goods from the Soviets. The “aid” was the bait, and sugar the hook—and the Cuban Leaders swallowed it.

For the rulers of the Soviet Union this was good business. Having overthrown the rule of the working class in the USSR, these new capitalists were increasingly driven by tire laws of imperialism: the need to monopolize sources of raw materials, to export capital for the purpose of extracting superprofits and to contend with imperialist rivals for world domination. They saw that in tying Cuba into their imperialist orbit they would be able to extract great wealth out of Cuba over the years and use Cuba as a political and military tool in their contention with their US rivals.

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“Cuba began rice rationing in 1962 but there has been no increase in the ration for the Cuban population even when China increased exports to Cuba,” and this is because Cuba increased its sugar production instead of making itself self-sufficient in food [Source]. Sugar was more profitable than rice, so the Cuban bourgeoisie prioritized it. This only made the effects of the US embargo harsher; either way, the embargo would be hard to deal with, as socialist Albania’s experience showed, but at least food could have been secured better.

Cuba’s dependence on the USSR caused even harsher difficulties after the latter’s dissolution, and now it officially legalized private enterprise and further promotes for-profit production. Some of the measures the revisionist rulers of Cuba enact would be necessary in a Cuban proletarian state as well, such as the concessions to the petty bourgeoisie that are given right now; we are not left-opportunists, so we do not deny the need for compromises similar to the USSR’s NEP. However, we fail to see how other measures, especially the focus on profitability, are truly necessary for Cuba; those “concessions” and “compromises” are what revisionists use in their cooperation with imperialism. That is why it is not only American imperialism that causes Cuba’s struggles (though that is very much the primary cause of them), but it is also the capitalist policies of Cuba’s leadership that leave it dependent on capitalist-imperialism.

Our principal position is that of opposing US imperialism, for the demise of American imperialism frees the Cuban people and may allow for a proletarian line to gain power in the country. Simply ignoring the embargo cannot help the Cuban people because the embargo is the justification for the country’s market economics and for-profit production. We must fight to end the embargo so that the Cuban economy can develop and so that a proletarian line can grow in popularity and take power.

Solidarity with the Cuban people and all oppressed nations around the world! Down with capitalist-imperialism and its lackeys! Only with socialism and communism can the masses free themselves and break their shackles!